Cyprus rivals still far apart after rare talks

NICOSIA (AFP) — Rival Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders held a rare face-to-face meeting on Wednesday, but in three and a half hours of talks they failed to make headway on ending the island's 33-year division.

Neither Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos nor Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat took reporters' questions after the encounter on neutral ground in the UN-patrolled buffer zone.

And in separate press conferences on home soil afterwards, the two leaders spelt out their continuing sharp differences over the best way forward after Papadopoulos led Greek Cypriot voters in rejecting a UN reunification plan in 2004.

UN mission chief Michael Moeller, who hosted the meeting at his residence, issued a brief and carefully worded statement praising the "constructive atmosphere" of the talks.

But he was unable even to announce a date for a new meeting.

The two leaders "agreed to continue their contacts through the United Nations and to meet again when appropriate," he said.

Afterwards, the two men revealed that they had disagreed sharply over how to implement the twin-track process they had thrashed out at their last meeting in July 2006.

Papadopoulos made clear that he considered the technical committees foreseen by that agreement as vital to preparing the way for effective negotiations on the substantive issues involved in reuniting the island.

Talat countered that that was a pretext for delay and that he had detected no willingness on the Greek Cypriot side to get down to serious talks.

Papadopoulos, who faces a re-election battle next February in which his two main challengers have traditionally been stronger supporters of reunification, accused the Turkish Cypriot leader of wanting a "variation" from what had been agreed in July.

"He wants talks to continue immediately without the committees, or for the role of the committees to be limited to a purely technical level of listing the headings to be discussed," Papadopoulos charged.

He warned that any shortcircuiting of the preparatory committees would "not speed up the process but lead us quickly to the realisation that we have reached deadlock."

But Talat, who led Turkish Cypriots in supporting the 2004 reunification plan by a wide margin, accused Papadopoulos of blocking any move to accelerate the pace of negotiations to counter a mounting slide towards permanent partition.

"We observed that there was no psychological preparedness for the opening of comprehensive negotiations," Talat said.

He said he ready to enter such talks "tomorrow" and had even proposed a timetable to complete the work of the preparatory committees by late November to pave the way for a comprehensive settlement by the end of next year.

"But they rejected any time limit."

Former colonial power Britain, which retains two sovereign military base areas on the island, has also expressed mounting frustration with the pace of reunification efforts.

"We very much hope that those talks will be entered into with real openness and determination on both sides," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said ahead of Wednesday's meeting.

The Greek Cypriot vote in the 2004 referendum meant that Cyprus joined the European Union later that year still a divided island.

EU law does not extend to the breakaway north of the island, which is recognized only by Ankara, meaning that Turkish Cypriots are denied the full benefits of the island's membership.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded its northern third following a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

Rival Cypriot leaders meet in bid to revive peace push

Rival Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders gathered for rare face-to-face talks on Wednesday, raising hopes of a revival of the flagging UN process to reunite the divided island.

The meeting between Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on neutral ground in the UN-patrolled buffer zone is aimed at making progress towards ending 33 years of partition.

When they last met on July 8, 2006, the two agreed a twin-track process to pave the way for peace talks in what the United Nations hailed as a "historic" breakthrough.

But the agreement has been gathering dust ever since, and Talat warned recently that the eastern Mediterranean island risked permanent partition.

Papadopoulos, head of the island's internationally recognised government, said on Tuesday that a resolution of the Cyprus problem "remains our first and most urgent priority".

"Our purpose is to break through the deadlock and expeditiously move forward with the implementation of the July 8 process," he said.

Diplomats say the fact the two will meet in the same room for only the second time since 2004 is significant.

"The absence of dialogue on Cyprus has been extremely damaging," a European diplomat told AFP. "The meeting has to be welcomed in the hope it will lead to real progress -- it provides an opportunity to improve the climate."

Wednesday's meeting was being held at the Nicosia residence of UN mission chief Michael Moeller, whose only comment on the eve of the talks was "I am always optimistic."

Talat, whose breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised only by Ankara, told Turkey's Anatolia news agency on Sunday he hoped there would be a positive outcome.

But he also warned there was "no question of giving way on the fundamental principles of political equality for the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey continuing as a guarantor power on the island."

Former colonial power Britain, which has expressed frustration with the deadlock on the island since Greek Cypriots voted down a UN reunification plan in 2004, welcomed the new talks but said both sides needed to enter them seriously.

"We very much hope that those talks will be entered into with real openness and determination on both sides," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on a visit to Ankara.

Analysts were wary of raising expectations, and said the price of failure could set the peace process back indefinitely as the world grows ever weary of an issue seemingly resistant to resolution.

"The consequences of failure at the meeting or in the coming months will only impact on the two communities and the island generally," said Tim Potier, assistant professor on international law and human rights at Cyprus's Intercollege.

"It's better for expectations to be lowered and the front door left open for further discussions," he told AFP.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkish troops invaded the island's northern third in 1974 following a Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military junta in Athens aimed at union with Greece.

And with little movement on the issue for more than three years, fears have been raised that permanent division is the only workable solution.

Talat said public opinion in the north had hardened since the 2004 referendum in which Turkish Cypriots backed reunification by a wide margin while Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly opposed it.

"The division is deepening. There are opinion polls which indicate that the majority of Turkish Cypriots are in favour of the two-state solution: permanent partition," Talat told Britain's Daily Telegraph last month.

Among Greek Cypriots, Euro MP Marios Matsakis caused a furore last week when he dared to suggest that for his community too partition was the best way forward.

The maverick politician was lambasted for arguing that a two-state solution was preferable to a Cyprus settlement -- based on a loosely-tied federation -- as envisaged in the UN blueprint Greek Cypriots rejected three years ago.

Dialogue starts in Cyprus amid mixed feelings

Turkish Cypriot side expects the meeting between Talat and Papadopoulos that comes after a 14-month break to produce results but warns the situation on the island will be complicated in the event of no dialogue

Before today's rare meeting between Cypriot leaders to break the deadlock in talks on the divided island, the Turkish Cypriot side delivered optimistic messages but warned that absence of dialogue will further complicate efforts for a settlement to the Cyprus dispute.

“It has been 14 months since the July 2006 meeting of the two leaders and the situation on the island got even worse,” Hasan Erçakıca, spokesman for Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat, told the Turkish Daily News yesterday.

He admitted that the absence of dialogue in Cyprus was damaging, pointing to a number of difficulties that strained the two sides during the more than one-year long break.

The island had then witnessed heated tension over oil exploration off the Mediterranean, a British football team's last-minute decision not to play against a Turkish Cypriot team upon reaction from Greek Cyprus and a growing lack of enthusiasm among Turkish Cypriots toward reunification according to recent public opinions.

The encounter between Talat and Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos comes on neutral ground in the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone amid rising uncertainty over the future of the island. Both leaders agreed at a U.N. brokered meeting on Jul. 8, 2006 to start a twin-track process to pave the way for peace talks.

But no progress has been made since then and the two sides delayed in carrying out the Jul. 8 agreement aimed at helping end the decades-old search for a way to reunify the island.

“We want the opening of the road for a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem,” said Erçakıca.

“The Greek Cypriots should also show goodwill otherwise the situation will be more complicated.”

Fears have been raised that permanent division is the only practical solution on the island after stalled talks on reunification. In a recent

interview with the Turkish Daily News, President Talat said the Turkish Cypriot side would work for a settlement but warned if the Greek Cypriots did not want a united island, then “we cannot go for a forced marriage.”

Erçakıca raised expectations that today's meeting would produce results and the Jul. 8 process would successfully be ensured.

“We are positive as there is no reason for being pessimistic,” he said.

‘Not a single Turkish Cypriot sees the Turkish army as an invader’

Talat lays down the rules for tomorrow’s meeting

SELF-RULE, self-determination and the right of the Turkish army to intervene in Cyprus will not be up for discussion when Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat sits down with President Papadopoulos tomorrow to try and break the deadlock that has plagued relations between the two communities since the failed referendum of 2004, Talat said at the weekend.

“Turkish Cypriots have ruled themselves since 1963. Today, they are the owners of a state, a fully functioning administration. They will not sacrifice this,” Talat told a conference in the Turkish city of Izmir.

He also warned that Turkish Cypriots would not accept the removal of Turkey’s right to intervene militarily on the island from any potential agreement between the two communities, contesting that “apart from marginal groups… not a single Turkish Cypriot sees the Turkish army as an invader”.

Despite his seemingly tough words, Talat said he remained hopeful that a breakthrough could be found to break the deadlock that has reigned since the Greek Cypriot rejection of the UN’s last effort to solve the Cyprus problem in 2004.

“Maybe, if we can find establish a basis, a common understanding for peace on Cyprus, I can’t see a reason why we shouldn’t be able to solve the Cyprus problem,” he said.

Wednesday’s meeting will be the first between the two leaders since they last came together in July 2006 to thrash out what has become known as the July 8 agreement. Since then, there has been no top-level contact, and many of the points in the agreement signed that day have been widely ignored on both sides.

Whether tomorrow’s meeting will produce results remains uncertain. Indeed, Talat is all too aware that Papadopoulos faces an election early next year, and that it could be this alone that has brought him to the negotiating table.

However, he also believes his counterpart’s possibly ulterior motives should not prevent the meeting from taking place. “If the election is the trigger that starts the peace process, then so be it,” he said. Talat also knows that he too is under the scrutinising eye of his community – a community that he and his supporters promised a swift solution to the Cyprus problem and EU membership – and that returning empty-handed from the meeting will do little to boost his popularity.

Spin merchants taking us for a ride

WHEN IT comes to raising public expectations sky-high, the government is in a league of its own. It is capable of making the most outrageously optimistic predictions about matters and spinning policy failures into major triumphs.

The fact that most of the media uncritically repeat the official version of events and never question the initial claims after they have been proved less than accurate, has allowed the government to carry on the spinning. Why mend its ways if the generation of hype does not carry any political cost?

Nothing better illustrates this phenomenon than the government-generated hype surrounding gas and oil exploration in the Cyprus seas. Not only was there a big fanfare at the beginning of the year, when the government announced that it would be inviting applications for exploration, but the impression created was that big oil companies would be fighting each other to secure licences.

The government had told certain papers that there was unprecedented interest from the giant oil companies which would all be descending on Cyprus.

This proved a figment of the government’s imagination. As the deadline for the submission of the applications approached, the interest shown was minimal, yet officials continued to make wild claims about the big interest shown, while the Government Spokesman announced that there was at least one big oil company showing an interest.

All government hype and myths were exposed on August 16 when just two concerns – neither of which could be described as a giant oil company – applied for licences for three of the 11 plots on offer! The government had to put a brave face on, insisting that the interest shown was “satisfactory”.

But did the government learn anything from this embarrassment? Of course not, it has already begun raising expectations about the next round of applications for the second batch of exploration plots. A week ago, the commerce minister Antonis Michaelides told one newspaper that he expected increased interest for the second batch of plots. How wise was this, given the August fiasco?

The proverb, “once bitten, twice shy” does not apply to this government. Only six days after the deadline, the head of the Energy Department, at the Commerce Ministry, told Simerini that he would be visiting Israel to look at revolutionary new technology that would end Cyprus’ dependence on oil! “In 12 square kilometres we would be able to produce enough power to cover all Cyprus’ electricity needs,” he told the paper.

If such technology existed, interest in oil exploration would surely fade. Then again, the same official had boasted a week before the deadline for exploration applications, that “in eight years we will be selling oil to all of Europe and you can imagine what Cyprus will become.”Unfortunately, the government will continue to take us for a ride for as long as the hype and the myths do not carry a cost.

Tottenham travel to Cyprus in UEFA cup

Tottenham Hotspur, the first winners of the UEFA Cup in 1972, will take on Cyprus's Anorthosis, while their Premier League rivals Everton face Ukraine's Metalist.

"It's going to be a discovery. It is a team that we do not know at all," Tottenham's sporting director Damien Comolli told reporters.

"Last year was a big frustration for us," Comolli added, referring to their quarter-final defeat by eventual winners Sevilla.

Bolton Wanderers take on Rabotnicki of Macedonia and Blackburn Rovers have been drawn against Greece's Larissa.

The ties will be played on Sept. 20 and Oct. 4.

The 40 first round winners will then be drawn in eight groups of five, with the top three of each group progressing to the knockout phase. They will be joined at that stage by the eight teams who finish third in their Champions League group.

Ioannou puts Cyprus on the map

OSAKA, Japan, Aug 30 (Reuters) - While Donald Thomas grabbed the headlines with his world title-winning high jump performance, Kyriakos Ioannou was quietly putting his country on the map.

The Cypriot's bronze medal performance at the Nagai stadium on Wednesday night was a first world athletics championships medal for Cyprus.

"It is the first medal ever for my country in athletics. My dream has come true," Ioannou told reporters.

"In Cyprus, football is still the number one sport. Tennis has become very popular since Marcos Bagdhatis reached the final at the Australian Open in 2006.

"I cannot be compared to him," the 23-year-old said.

"But this is a big success for me and my country. The medal is unexpected and shows that anyone can do something special in sport."